They may have influenced other impressionable traders' decisions by holding a portion of "excess" physical barrels in but one of many markets, but proving that their actions "caused futures prices to rise" across the board is a waste of time.

It's interesting that the real run-up in prices didn't occur until long after these guys quit.

What's the maximum penalty in a civil suit? It's all smoke and mirrors. Democrats have done their best for decades to make sure the US would not be independent of foreign oil. Now they are trying to blame high energy prices on the usual (capitalist) suspects.

If crude oil and natural gas are so critical to so many other industries including agriculture why in the world do we expect it to be, and remain in perpetuity, as cheap as dirt?

Click to expand...

cheap as dirt gasoline would be 33 cents a gallon, as it was prior to the oil embargo in the 70's....or cheap as dirt gasoline would be below $1.00 a gallon as it was during a part of the clinton administration....$1.80 a gallon gas was outrageous in price, the first time it hit that price, which i believe was during the last Bush administration....now it seems cheap after hitting $4 bucks a gallon.....

dirt cheap gas is relative.

I am fine with gasoline going up in price 300%-400% since Clinton, AS LONG AS our family income can rise as much as well! (no such luck as of this point)

Joe Petrowski of Gulf Oil was on CNBC this morning. He sees weakening in the energy markets for the months ahead. There was a brief discussion of this US lawsuit. and he agreed that improprieties should be prosecuted. His opinion is that trading adds volitility but does not "control" markets. I tend to agree.

Bart Chilton of the CFTC was just on. He stressed the term "alleged" improprieties in trading.
Speculative long positions can add to all commodity prices, not just oil prices.
He said when you have a lot of volume trading, there's room for "mischief".

Crude oil prices are not control by the US economy rather controlled by OPEC which makes it hard for us to meet both ends.I think government is concentrating on the crude oil so much it even violated the basic human rights in many countries by occupying their oil reserves by killing the innocent people.

Yea, if yer payin' for yer gas with a company credit card...GM CEO calls for $1 gas tax hikeJune 7, 2011: General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said his company and his industry would be helped, not hurt, if consumers paid higher gas taxes.

In an interview published in Tuesday's Detroit News, Akerson floated the idea of a $1 a gallon increase in the gas tax as a way to encourage buyers to purchase smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Greg Martin, spokesman for GM's Washington office, confirmed that the quotes reflect Akerson's and GM's view. Akerson said he would support a jump in the gas tax if it came instead of tighter fuel economy regulations that GM and other automakers will have to meet in coming years. By the year 2025, automakers could be forced to hit fuel economy averages of as much as 62 mpg.

Akerson said that a higher gas tax, including an immediate 50-cent-a-gallon increase to take advantage of recent declines in gas prices, would probably make some of his Republican friends "puke." But he said it would do more to help the environment than the pending fuel economy rules. "There ought to be a discussion on the cost versus the benefits," Akerson told the paper. "What we are going to do is tax production here, and that will cost us jobs."

Martin acknowledged such a gas tax hike would be very difficult, if not impossible, to pass, and added that GM is not going to actively push for a gas tax hike as part of its legislative agenda. "As a company we understand that's a decision that resides with Congress and policymakers," he said. The current federal gas tax is only 18.4 cents a gallon.

GM has gained U.S. market share so far this year, even in the face of rising gas prices. It has the best selling compact car in the country, the Chevrolet Cruze, which was introduced to showrooms in November. At his first annual meeting since the company's initial public offering, Akerson told shareholders GM has been able to weather the storm of high oil prices even better than it expected when it was making contingency plans last year. "I maintain these are the right vehicles at the right time in our history," he said.

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